Chasing Halibut just for the Halibut

by | Feb 5, 2011 | halibut on the fly, Uncategorized | 2 comments

February 2, 2011

That halibut we had for dinner last night was so darn good that when Grant started to make a plan for today we all leaned toward dunking flies down deep for full day of halibut fly fishing. Once again, even with the sun up the temps were cold as heck. I brought some warm clothes for this trip but not nearly enough. There was no way we were going to wade the surf yet, so again we had a casual breakfast and let the sun warm us up.

It wasn’t until about 10 AM that we got in Grants truck and drove the short distance to Toms halibut spot where we fished sunset last night. The tide was high so we couldn’t drive the shortcut down the beach so we took the long way on the roads of the desert. I never mind a little extra driving on the desert because we always see roadrunners when in Baja. And we did.

We didn’t make first cast until almost noon. When I set foot off the beach to wade, the water was absolutely freezing and the surf was big. Fortunately the wind was out of the east making life easy for casting and the high tide was dropping fast. Gradually the big waves shrunk and rocks that protected Toms halibut lies began to show themselves. Regardless of things looking good however, the four of us cast relentlessly for hours but not even a strike.

At 4 PM the tide was low and we could walk everywhere. There were new rocks showing, logs sticking out of nowhere and you could see the sand that Tom frequently catches halibut. I was just beginning to wonder why we hadn’t had even a hit when suddenly Grant hooked up. Grant was hucking flies today so the hook up got Sammy’s and my attention fast. We ran over to him and sure enough it was our first halibut of the day. After a few photos Sammy and I went into serious fish mode.

From that moment until sunset we had steady good fishing. While Sammy, Grant and I caught the occasional halibut, barred sand bass and corvina on flies, Tom put on a clinic with his bait caster. Tom is not yet a fly fisherman and judging by how many more fish he caught then we did tonight, he may never learn. I watched Tom land about four halibut, ten sand bass and a few corvina. It was incredible. However, I wouldn’t trade the challenge of fly fishing for halibut for anything!

When we finished up our fishing we were all freezing to death. Grants truck showed a mere 53°’s! No wonder we were cold. We whacked one halibut for dinner tonight. It was so good last night we had to do it again. We made it into fish tacos and it was the best fish tacos I ever had in my life. Absolutely the finest! Thank you Mr. halibut. Now its time for a good night sleep because we are headed for Magdalena Bay in the morning – very early.

(One quick note. Incase you didn’t notice, the picture here that looks like nothing is actually a halibut we released. You have to look carefully as his ability to camouflage himself with the bottom is incredible)

 

 

2 Comments

  1. kim Karazurna

    Amazing pictures! And I thought you were kidding about the cold.

Welcome to the Blog of Jeff Currier!

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I started fly fishing at age 7 in the lakes and ponds of New England cutting my teeth on various sunfish, bass, crappie and stocked trout. I went to Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, where I graduated with a Naturalist Degree while I discovered new fishing opportunities for pike, muskellunge, walleyes and various salmonids found in Lake Superior and its tributaries.

From there I headed west to work a few years in the Yellowstone region to simply work as much as most people fish and fish as much as most people work. I did just that, only it lasted over 20 years working at the Jack Dennis Fly Shop in Jackson, WY where I departed in 2009. Now it’s time to work for "The Man", working for myself that is.

I pursue my love to paint fish, lecture on every aspect of fly fishing you can imagine and host a few trips to some of the most exotic places you can think of. My ultimate goal is to catch as many species of fish on fly possible from freshwater to saltwater, throughout the world. I presently have taken over 440 species from over 60 countries!

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